As big as the Hutchinson game was last week, McPherson High coach Tom Young believes Friday's 7 p.m. home game against Campus is more important.

“In a lot of ways, this game means more than last week's,” said Young, whose team gave the three-time defending Class 6A champions a good test before the Salthawks came away with a 17-7 victory. “It would have been really neat to have beaten Hutch, but when you get right down to it, win or lose, it didn't mean a whole lot. This game being a league game and all, this one has a lot more meaning.”

And the league opener happens to come against the team that cost the Bullpups the outright Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League Division II championship in 2006.

A year ago in Haysville, the Bullpups had a 26-14 lead deep into the fourth quarter when the Colts were able to come up with a pair of scores, the last with 23 seconds left for a stunning 27-26 victory.

MHS blew out its other four league opponents and clearly by the end of the season was playing the best football in the division. But those haunting final minutes against the Colts haven't been forgotten.

“Sure, it's a strong motivation,” Young said.

Campus has a new coach in Tom O'Connor and he had a debut last week that he'd certainly like to forget. Goddard jumped on the Colts early and often and wound up with an overwhelming 54-0 victory.

“They've changed offensively and defensively,” said Young, whose defense was bedazzled last year by quarterback Ryan Burke, who had 303 yards of total offense. “They're still running a spread style of offense with one back a good share of the time. But it's what they call a ‘pistol offense.' They're in the shotgun with the back directly behind the quarterback.”

And Burke is no longer that quarterback, as thankfully for the Bullpups he has moved on. Sophomore Billy Falley made the start last week and it was a rude how-do-you-do, as he threw for just 29 yards. Campus also couldn't run the ball at all, finishing with just 43 yards.

“It was a bit deceiving,” Young said of the lopsided score. “Goddard made a lot of yards, but they had some help. The quarterback from Campus really struggled and they had a couple of interceptions and fumbles.”

The Bullpup offense also struggled last week with less than 200 yards, but that came against arguably the best defense in the state. MHS put up huge numbers in last year's game against the Colts, both on the ground and through the air. Young is hoping MHS can throw off the shackles and rattle off the big plays he knows it's capable of.

Young said a couple of players who stood out last week were Joe Reber from his spot in the secondary and center Parker Johnson on the offensive line.

The Bullpups got out of the game relatively healthy, as Young lists no players as being out this week.

More Game Night previews are available in today's section.

McPherson Unified School District 418
514 N. Main
McPherson, KS 67460
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